USS Durham off San Diego in 1989 | |
History | |
---|---|
United States | |
Name | Durham |
Namesake | Durham |
Builder | Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Co. |
Laid down | 10 July 1967 |
Launched | 29 March 1968 |
Commissioned | 24 May 1969 |
Decommissioned | 25 February 1994 |
Stricken | 31 August 2015 |
Identification | Pennant number: LKA-114 |
Fate | Sunk as target, 30 August 2020 |
Badge | |
General characteristics | |
Class and type | Charleston-class amphibious cargo ship |
Displacement |
|
Length | 575 ft 6 in (175.41 m) |
Beam | 82 ft (25 m) |
Draft | 25 ft 5 in (7.75 m) |
Boats & landing craft carried | 18 × LCM-8 and LCM-6 landing craft |
Complement | 50 officers, 592 men |
Armament | 4 × twin 3"/50 caliber guns |
Service record | |
Operations: |
USS Durham (LKA-114) was a Charleston-class amphibious cargo ship in service with the United States Navy from 1969 to 1994. She was sunk as a target in August 2020.
USS Durham was named after Durham, North Carolina. She served as a commissioned ship for 24 years and 9 months, and earned a total of 15 awards and campaign ribbons for her service. She was laid down as AKA-114 at Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Co., Newport News, VA, and redesignated LKA-114 on 1 January 1969. She was commissioned on 24 May 1969. [1]
In April 1975, Durham participated in Operation Frequent Wind, the evacuation of Saigon at the end of the Vietnam War. [2]
In the Gulf War, she was part of an 18-ship amphibious task force that was the largest such force since the Korean War. The task force arrived on station in the North Arabian Sea on 12 January 1991.
The ship was decommissioned on 25 February 1994. She was sunk by HMAS Stuart and her embarked MH-60R Seahawk on 30 August 2020 as part of a live fire exercise during Exercise RIMPAC 2020. [3]
USS Tarawa (LHA-1), the lead ship of her class, was an amphibious assault ship that served in the United States Navy from 1976 to 2009. She was the second ship to be named for the Battle of Tarawa, fought during World War II. Tarawa was decommissioned on 31 March 2009, at San Diego Naval Base.
USS Ogden (LPD-5), an Austin-class amphibious transport dock, was the second ship of the United States Navy to be named for Ogden, Utah. Ogden was laid down on 4 February 1963 by the New York Naval Shipyard. She was launched on 27 June 1964 sponsored by Mrs. Laurence J. Burton, and commissioned at New York City on 19 June 1965.
USS Cleveland (LPD-7), an Austin-class amphibious transport dock, was the third ship of the United States Navy to be named for the city in Ohio. Her keel was laid down at Ingalls Shipbuilding of Pascagoula, Mississippi. She was launched on 7 May 1966, and was commissioned on 21 April 1967 at Norfolk, Virginia. At the time of decommissioning, she was the third-oldest commissioned ship in the US Navy, behind USS Constitution and USS Enterprise.
USS Conolly (DD-979), named for Admiral Richard Lansing Conolly USN, was a Spruance-class destroyer built by the Ingalls Shipbuilding Division of Litton Industries at Pascagoula, Mississippi.
USS New Orleans (LPH-11) was an Iwo Jima-class amphibious assault ship in the United States Navy. She was the third Navy ship to be so named, and is the first named for the Battle of New Orleans, which was the last major battle of the War of 1812.
The Rim of the Pacific Exercise (RIMPAC) is the world's largest international maritime warfare exercise. RIMPAC is held biennially during June and July of even-numbered years from Honolulu, Hawaii, with the exception of 2020 where it was held in August. It is hosted and administered by the United States Navy's Indo-Pacific Command, headquartered at Pearl Harbor, in conjunction with the Marine Corps, the Coast Guard, and Hawaii National Guard forces under the control of the Governor of Hawaii.
USS St. Louis (AKA-116/LKA-116), a Charleston class amphibious cargo ship, was the sixth US ship to bear the name. She served as a commissioned ship for 22 years and 11 months.
USS Charleston (AKA-113/LKA-113) was an amphibious cargo ship, and was the lead ship of her class in the United States Navy. She was the fifth ship to be named Charleston for Charleston, South Carolina. She served as a commissioned ship for 23 years and 4 months.
Amphibious cargo ships were U.S. Navy ships designed specifically to carry troops, heavy equipment and supplies in support of amphibious assaults, and to provide naval gunfire support during those assaults. A total of 108 of these ships were built between 1943 and 1945—which worked out to an average of one ship every eight days. Six additional AKAs, featuring new and improved designs, were built in later years. They were originally called Attack Cargo Ships and designated AKA. In 1969, they were renamed as Amphibious Cargo Ships and redesignated LKA.
USS Vermilion (AKA-107/LKA-107), was a Tolland-class attack cargo ship of the United States Navy, named after a parish in southern Louisiana and a county in eastern Illinois. She served as a commissioned ship for 25 years and 9 months.
USS Algol (AKA-54) was an Andromeda-class attack cargo ship. She was the first ship of the United States Navy by this name, after Algol, a fixed star in the constellation Perseus. Algol served as a commissioned ship for 22 years and 1 month.
USS Rankin (AKA-103/LKA-103) was a Tolland-class attack cargo ship in service with the United States Navy from 1945 to 1947 and again from 1952 to 1971. She was finally sunk as an artificial reef in 1988.
USS Mobile (AKA-115/LKA-115) was a Charleston class amphibious cargo ship named after the city of Mobile, Alabama. She was the fourth U.S. Navy ship to bear that name. She served as a commissioned ship for 24 years and 4 months. LKAs had the distinction of being the only ships in the "Gator Navy" that were not flat bottom. They would drop anchor several hundred yards offshore and use their Mike 8s (LCM-8) and Mike 6s (LCM-6) to ferry in the Marines and their equipment.
USS El Paso (AKA-117/LKA-117) is a Charleston-class amphibious cargo ship named after the city of El Paso, Texas. She served as a commissioned ship for 24 years and three months.
USS Libra (AK-53/AKA-12/LKA-12) was an Arcturus-class attack cargo ship named after the constellation Libra. She served as a commissioned ship for 11 years.
USS Muliphen (AKA-61/LKA-61) was an Andromeda-class attack cargo ship in service with the United States Navy from 1944 to 1970. She was sunk as an artificial reef in 1989.
USS Peoria (LST-1183) was a Newport-class tank landing ship which replaced the traditional bow door-design tank landing ships (LSTs). The vessel took part in the Vietnam War and Gulf War. The ship was constructed by the National Steel and Shipbuilding Company in San Diego, California and was launched in 1968 and commissioned in 1970. Named for a city in Illinois, Peoria was assigned to the United States Pacific Fleet and home ported at San Diego. The tank landing ship alternated between military exercises along the United States west coast and deployments to the western Pacific. Peoria took part in the evacuations of Phnom Penh, Cambodia and Saigon, South Vietnam, both of which signaled the end of American involvement in the respective countries. The vessel was decommissioned 1994 and sunk as a target ship during a RIMPAC naval exercise in 2004.
USS Racine (LST-1191) was the thirteenth of twenty Newport-class tank landing ships of the United States Navy (USN) which replaced the traditional bow door-design tank landing ships (LSTs). The second ship named after the city in Wisconsin, the ship was constructed by National Steel and Shipbuilding Company of San Diego, California. The LST was launched in 1970 and was commissioned in 1971. Racine was assigned to the United States west coast and deployed to the western Pacific Ocean during the Vietnam War. The ship was transferred to the Naval Reserve Force in 1981. The LST was decommissioned in 1993 and placed in reserve. Racine was struck from the Naval Vessel Register in 2008 and after an attempted sale to Peru failed, was discarded as a target ship during a sinking exercise in July 2018.
USS Gallatin (APA-169/LKA-169) was a Haskell-class attack transport acquired by the U.S. Navy during World War II for the task of transporting troops to and from combat areas.
There is no Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships (DANFS) entry for the ship.
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